Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the second group of motions presented by my colleague from the New Democratic Party, the hon. member for Churchill, to the Standing Committee on Transport.
What I want to do is to quickly remind the minister, and everyone else—I hope no one will think we are suffering from collective amnesia—that the Bloc Quebecois position on this 10% rule on individual share ownership was that it was a major point, in order to avoid having an individual or a group of individuals take over control of Air Canada.
If this 10% rule had been introduced when Air Canada was privatized in 1988, we were convinced, and we still are, that this rule would still be meaningful.
For the benefit of our audience, I would like to dispel any ambiguity. The Bloc Quebecois would be in favour of Air Canada taking over control of Canadian International, rather than the bid from Mr. Schwartz, representing Onex, that friend of the Liberals and Liberal bagman. It has been discovered that Mr. Schwartz had made a considerable contribution to the Liberal election fund in 1997.
I will remind all hon. members that the Bloc Quebecois was not at war with either Mr. Schwartz or Onex. The Bloc Quebecois position was clear at that time. We felt, and still do, that the Onex bid to acquire Air Canada was illegal, and this has been confirmed by a Quebec superior court decision. Although the package was wrapped up earlier at a meeting with the Minister of Transport, we believed that the Onex offer was illegal. We had nothing against Mr. Schwartz or Onex.
The Bloc Quebecois even introduced a motion on an opposition day asking the government to not increase the rule of 10%.
As I mentioned earlier in my remarks on the first group, a bill is a set of compromises. We think that the amendment proposed by my colleague in the New Democratic Party to maintain the 10% rule is reasonable. We support her proposal.
I also want to say to the government that the compromise in Bill C-26 of having 15% individual ownership is also satisfactory. If the government had followed the lead of the Liberal majority on the Standing Committee on Transport, which wanted to increase the figure to 20%, the question would be different. Twenty per cent of the individual shares of Air Canada gave effective control, whereas 15% does not and ensure sufficient protection.
As to the second motion in this second group, I inform my NDP colleague that we will be favourable. Unlike our Canadian Alliance colleagues, we opposed the fact of raising the figure for foreign participation in controlling Air Canada shares beyond 25%.
It is odd to see Quebec sovereignists like us defending Canadian sovereignty against the Americans. This is why, although the Liberal majority on the committee encouraged it to go as high as 49%, we are happy to see that the bill limited everything to 25%.
However, the minister is keeping for himself in the residual powers, the option of increasing it by order in council with the support of three ministers of the crown. We feel that 25% foreign control is enough to maintain Canadian and Quebec funds in the new Air Canada. For all these reasons, we support the two amendments moved by our NDP colleague.